Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

...wherein I natter on about my nuptials, and I'm all about those crafts!...

My deeply-ingrained love of making lists, and subsequently checking things off said lists, is one of the big things propelling me forward in my on-going task of wedding planning.

See here the most recent of checks, my "bouquet wrap".

In one of my last wedding posts I mentioned that I would be crafting with several wee framed photos. This is the end product.

Since I'll be making my own bouquet, I thought it'd be nice to add some personal flair.

My wedding gown had to be hemmed up (about 6" up!) and with the extra silk I embroidered this little design.
The photos are of his & my parents' and grandparents' weddings.
The ring stitched on is his great grandmother's, purchased in the 1920s. I wanted to incorporate it into the day somehow, and unfortunately it's about 3 sizes too big for me to wear.
So, on to the bouquet wrap it goes.

And in non-crafty news...

About a month ago we had our engagement photos taken (yes, clearly not any time near our actual engagement, but it was included in the wedding package so we had them done.)
Here is a link to our photographer's blog, where she's posted just a few of the images she took on the day.
You *might* recognize the background of these photos; it's served as a photo shoot for me before!

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

...wherein I discuss my upcoming wedding, and this time it's the shower!...

This past Sunday was a lovely day, heralding the soon-to-be-season; the sun shone happily, my birds squawked noisily, and my sister saw the culmination of her months-long efforts in the beautiful bridal shower she arranged for me.

Needless to say, it was knitting-themed.

The above photo montage gives you a glimpse into the day, including the yarn-basket centrepieces she created, the knit-fabric invites she handmade, the awesomeness of my great knitting buds, and the gloriousness of MacGyvering a swift from the back of a chair.

Yes, it was a knitter's shower extraordinaire!

ETA:
The wee white boxes were the favours - 2 Lindt chocolates.
There weren't any knitting games, though my sister played with the idea. Unfortunately, not everyone who attended was a knitter ;)
(though, I did get a couple of requests from some wee ones to teach them how to knit!)

Thanks for the compliments on the dress - I can't wait to wear it again.

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

... wherein I continue to chat about my wedding plans, and it's still about the fun crafty stuffs ...


Ah yes, here it is: the reason (or at least, one of them!) for my sustained bloggy silence.
I've been keeping myself busy busy with various and sundry wedding bits.
Ok, so what've I actually done?

Well, first off are the invites. Last week I had a bit of an assembly-party, including me and four very generous and talented helpers, five hours, many metres of tape and some delicious snacks.

It was really rather fun - now I'm just waiting on the envelopes, and I'll then be sending these sweeties out in to the wide postal world.

Other paper-based activity includes the guestbook I've put together, using blurb dot com.
It's just arrived today, and I'm sooo happy!
What I did was gather up a whole whack of my and his family photos, scan them and use the software to edit the images together.
I also thought it was a neat idea to encourage guests to write more than just their name and address (while cool, not really very interesting). On the signing pages, I put two columns; one says "Name", the other "Thoughts, Wishes, Memories, Advice".


Incidentally, I'm not the only one who's been busy planning and paper-crafting. My very dedicated sister-turned-maid-o'-honour has whipped up what, I have to say, are some of the absolute coolest Bridal Shower invites I've ever seen.
Not only are they hand-made, they're yarn themed!!
She's keeping her plans quiet, so I'm not sure what awaits me next month.
I'm really looking forward to it!

And, on to yet more stuffs I've been doing:

I have a pretty good idea what the centrepieces are going to look like - one part of it are these round glass vases.
These vases have become the bane of my existence. There's boxes and boxes of the things sitting in my apartment, awaiting their turn to be etched.

The frustrating part is the fiddly wee bits of stencil I have to place for each vase. I've
used them so much now, they're beginning to lose their stickiness and readily slip off, move their position and wreak general havoc on my glassy crafting attempts.
And so, I have about ten left to make. I'll have a bit of a celebration the day they're done and out of here!

And now, I have a question to ask of you all (because you've all been of such help in my many other wedding-advice asks!).
Months ago, I bought several rolls of rather cute ribbon, thinking it would be some sort of back up if the vases didn't work out. As noted above, the vases (though troublesome) are very near being deemed successful, and so I have the riddle of this ribbon, and what precisely I should do with it.








And, one last thing I'd like to share: this craft-in-waiting.
I'll show you what exactly they'll all become when it's finished.

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

... wherein I continue to chat about my wedding plans, and it's fun crafty stuffs this time...

I've been whirring into high gear; these past few weeks have seen me book the dj (hooray!), choose a hairstyle with all your help, have a successful make-it-yourself-bouquet trial run and locate a seamstress who's doing a fantabulous job on my gown for a quarter of the price quoted by a local bridal shop.

But, as per usual, I have some questions for all you folks.

First, here's some images of my hoped-for hairstyle:



















Yeah, I know they're practically the same thing, but what to do with the bangs?!
The part that appeals to me the most is the "thrown up-edness" of these two styles. That and the fact that it requires no imagination to foresee how my pretty little silk rose will look incorporated into the style.

Which brings me to my first advice-ask.

I've decided to add a wee bit of lace to the silk flower (how could I resist the idea of knitting for my wedding!)
The lovely task of choosing said lace has led me to a couple of patterns on Rav, including these three:

Hilton Lace
by A.M.

Belmina Lace
by A.M.

Edging with Flowers and Fans
by Verlag Otto Beyer Design Team

Lace edging is one of those things I thought I'd never get a chance to use, despite the fact that I find it very aesthetically pleasing and technically interesting. I thought I had oh so many lace designs in my mountainous knitting bibliothèque, but alas, there was nothing suitable within.

I didn't want anything with points that jut out too far (so the Belmina lace above is sort of pushing it) and I didn't think anything with a large repeat would look so great (but I am knitting it in a very fine laceweight, so I can get away with up to about 15-20 st repeat, methinks).

What to choose?

(The designer for the top two lace panels has many more if you follow the link. I'm always very happy to get some new ideas and fresh perspective).

And now for the second advice-ask.

I have the bonbonniere all lined up and ready for the adults (to be revealed on a future post), but it's occurred to me that it would be nice to have a little something for all the young children.
So, to parents out there: what do you think would be appropriate to include in a child's wedding favour?
My brainstorm so far has led me to:
-small pad of paper
-pencil (or maybe washable crayons)
-some sort of candy, like Smarties (or M&Ms, for my American friends out there)
-maybe a small toy?

I'm afraid I might be overeager and/or ignorant with my choices, so I deign to your wisdom!

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

...wherein I continue to chat about my wedding, and this time it's about the hair...

Since the last time I talked about my impending nuptials was way back in September, I thought I'd give both a wee update as well as ask some input.

Update: I've got (most of) the biggies nailed down, and now have to tackle the hiring of a DJ, as well as begin the leap into crafting that will be my life for the next few months (and I'm really looking forward to it!)

Asking for Input:

Before I can do work on a particular wedding craft (which I just might share with you all when it's done soon...ish...) I have to figure out what I'm doing with my hair.

For reference, this is what my dress looks like, as worn by a statuesque Spanish model:

From what I gather, there's three basic ways one can choose to wear their hair:
1) Updo
2) Half-Updo
3) Down-do

Each has their attractions and drawbacks.

The Updo

As you can see from this photo, I'm thinking along the lines of a "messy" updo. I don't want anything sleek-to-my-head.

Pros:
-likely the formality will match the style of dress more than others
-can wear that flower pin I've already bought!
-keeps hair off neck in yucky late-July heat

Cons:
-generally, I'm not comfortable showing much of my face, and this style might emphasize certain facial features I'd really rather not emphasize
-I have (what might be an unfounded) fear that an updo will shake loose with what I imagine will be all my move-busting and general hub-bub of the day


The Half-Updo

This would be along the same "messy"/wavy lines as the updo.

Pros:
-compromise between up and down, both in formality and face-covering-ness
-can still wear that flower in my hair

Cons:
-still have the problem of hair-on-neck in July heat
-might be even worse in emphasizing what my heart-shaped face doesn't need to have emphasized

Down-do

Once again, I'm thinking wavy and loose.

Pros:
-works with my hair's natural tendency to be wavy
-covers more face
-I have the long hair, have been purposefully growing the long hair, and want to show the length of the long hair!

Cons:
-might make me feel too hot, and I hate sweating to begin with :p
-might be too informal a look for the gown
-probably can't wear that flower in my hair!

So, what'd you think?
I'm still pretty undecided.

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

...wherein I continue to chat about my wedding outfit n' stuffs...

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my last wedding post. I'm currently leaning towards hair half down with silk flower, but all remains to be seen, as I have about 10 more months to go!

When I saw these shoes, I knew I had to have them.
A friend of mine was married a couple years ago, and she had a pair of shoes dyed to a lovely blue.
Blue not being my colour, I thought red it must be.

I found these lovelies at zappos.com. Now, I need to decide if I want to wear them pre-wedding or not (I've heard a good suggestion re: breaking in the shoes, if only to scuff up the bottom and prevent embarrassing slip-sliding).













As for jewellery, I've had me a fantastic time surfing around etsy, and discovered Erica Bapst's shop. She had this pretty necklace listed, and I wanted earrings to match. No problem! she says, and in one night creates these prefect wee crystals for me.
I've tried them on with the dress and they match, though I do think I'd like the necklace to be a touch longer... I'm working on it!


And for the requisite "something blue", I've managed to obtain what I think may turn out to be the perfect hue o' polish for my toes.

No worries, my toes and shoes won't clash; the blue polish will me my wee secret.

Yarg, I have to dive into the photographer search... wish me luck - I've no idea what I want, should look for or even where to start!

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

After much research¹ I've made some decisions regarding my wedding next year. Herein lies the first of what may turn out to be one, or rather many, Canary's-Getting-Married posts.

I have to admit, it was something of a decision for me whether or not to impose wedding gleefulness on a purportedly knitting/craft focussed blog, but I'm having loads of fun planning! The glee cannot be contained.

And truly, while I'm happy to be marrying the dude, yada yada yada, I'm looking forward to a grand excuse reason to craft to my crafty heart's content.² And a kickass party.

Being something of a clotheshorse, the dress was tackled first. I thank greatly Julie at Team Knit for her post earlier this year re: her beautiful wedding. You've been inspirational and informative. Merci bien! Her post led me to the website where I found my dress.

Now, to dispel some silliness re: weddings. I had no "ohmigawd-magic-this-is-the-dress" moment. No siree. Methinks this is something of legend. Instead, I did me my homework and knew going in that I did not want süber bling, anything overwhelming, the promise of my firstborn for down payment, and definitely nothing strapless (btw, good luck to all looking for something outside this box. If you are, the interwebs are your friend. The cookie-cutter bride is raging in my locale, wherein it seems the stereotypical gown is requisite for one and all. If you ask at the shop for anything different, they just might give you the confused-Scooby-Doo-whatchoo-talkin'-bout face.)

Bizarrely, the dress I purchased is actually the first one I tried on. I humoured the sales attendant by trying on two she picked out for me, but I certainly wasn't having any sequin-encrusted nightmare claustrophobically enclosing my body.

I started out being certain that I wanted a tea length dress. But it occurred to me that I would surely never have a reason to wear a wedding gown again, whereas a lovely tea-length dress could be trotted out for various and sundry occasions. So here's the dress as sported by a statuesque Spanish model.

Pronovias makes lovely gowns, and I was very happy to see that this particular style (Diamante) flatters many different body types (just google Pronovias Diamante. All those sporting it look fantastico.)

It lives on the back of my closet door now, because I'm nervous to go to the seamstress. Very nervous. I'll spill my heart out here and divulge that I'm afraid they'll kill it. I'm also afraid they'll tell me I'm too short to wear it. Yes, it's true. Munchkins aren't allowed to wear flat shoes and full-length wedding gowns, as I've come to learn.³ This dress has to come up about 10". No joke. So, if my dress isn't killed I'll do a happy dance and let you know it lives still.

I do have a question for you: I'm not a veil person, and so am nixing that part of the ensemble. Instead, I'm leaning towards a silk flower in my hair, possibly with feather adornments. Not sure yet.
Considering this dress, what would you wear in your hair? Head band? Tiara? No hair adornments at all?

If you aren't sick of my wedding-glee, I'll have to show ya'll my shoes and jewellery next.
_______________
¹ by this, I mean magazine perusal, blog a-readin' and copious book skimming

² The goodness of the dude and compatibility of the match can be summed up in his canny comment, "this is just a big crafting project for you, isn't it?"

³ Unfortunately, there are many people who don't hide the fact that they think you're doing something "wrong" when planning your wedding. Most people are lovely, but there are a few who make you feel like poo.